Where Is That Prize Anyway?

I've been around the bloggy world for nearly two years now and I have helped host and organize many contests, events and blog parties. Many of us do this kind of work to help businesses promote products and offer our readers some goodies. It's a win win situation, right?

It can be unless you run into the same situation several times, you know when the sponsor doesn't ante up the prize! Is there a running list somewhere? Should these bloggers and companies be black listed? Is it just an oops I forgot or is it more I wanted some traffic and money is tight and I can no longer offer the prize. There are many reasons this can happen.

What is the right thing to do? What happens when you have done your part? The party is over and you have put your sponsor (this could be a blogger) and winner in touch and you quietly step out of it. You think ah, success I'm done and everyone is happy! Then a month, two months, or even three months or more have passed and you get that email. You know the one, "Hey your sponsor never delivered my prize. Just thought you should know." Are you responsible? Do you try to make contact again with the sponsor? It makes you look bad doesn't it? You are a representative of sorts for the company and your blog and when they don't deliver you look foolish.

I've won and not received my prize from a blogger and a company. What can I do? I can email the host and let them know, only for them to redirect me back to the sponsor.

Who's responsibility is it anyway? When I organize an event and I get those dreaded emails months later I feel responsible. Am I really responsible? Should I offer something else to my winner, my reader, the person that made so much effort entering to begin with? What if I'm the middle man (so to speak) and I pair the two up but it's not even my blog! What do you think?